OT - Spoke with someone who works at EA today... (NCAA Football related)

Hey, since there's so much interest in the NCAA Football franchise and what's going to happen to the game...I thought I'd pass along this info from a conversation I had today with someone who works for EA.

In short, they're not worried at all about the game. The NCAA did what they had to do to distance themselves from these lawsuits, everyone knows that. But the NCAA wasn't even in the game all that much to begin with.

The reason they're not worried is because NO university does anything other than allow EA to use it's name and logo, the fact that there is obviously player likeness has nothing to do with the university...so they're covered. Michigan doesn't submit a roster to EA, they don't say "make QB #16 super fast and one of the best athletes in the game." ESPN doesn't give that info either, they just provide the presentation for the game.

No school will back away from the game because it provides branding, advertising, etc. for the university. Just like when you make March Madness, all those brackets give so much exposure to the little guys for that month or 2...why would any school willinging take itself out of the game?

As for the name, they've already come up with a bunch of options. Dropping the NCAA name and just going with College Football 15 is one thought on the table, but they're also debating on using a former coach like Madden. With that said, I FEAR they could go with Lou Holtz since they have the ESPN connection. Also, don't rule out it being called "ESPN College Football '15" or "ESPN College Football Gameday '15." The point is, there are plenty of other options.

Obviously things could change, but the person I spoke with (a former co-worker who left my university to go work for EA) didn't seem worried. The biggest thing is knowing the schools aren't going to back out, there have been rumors as if each school will have to make it's own "at your own risk" decision like the NCAA, but that's not true...the schools don't have much involvement outside of logos/licencing. It'll be interesting to see if the lawsuits now are aimed at EA rather than the NCAA.